


Lost Souls

by old_and_new_friends



Series: Rare Pair Challenge Fics [3]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Angst, Fog of Lost Souls - Freeform, Forbidden Love, Imperialism, M/M, Reincarnation, Spirit World, War, no happy ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-27
Updated: 2021-02-27
Packaged: 2021-03-18 18:00:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,324
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29737707
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/old_and_new_friends/pseuds/old_and_new_friends
Summary: Lu Ten and Zhao don't have luck on their side when it comes to their relationship.Between the laws of their nation, Lu Ten's death and Zhao getting trapped in the Fog of Lost Souls, it seems like the spirits are just against them.
Relationships: Lu Ten/Zhao
Series: Rare Pair Challenge Fics [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2168028
Kudos: 4
Collections: 2021 Avatar Pro-Shipping Rare Pair Challenge





	Lost Souls

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not sure where this ship came from but it's fun to think about because it's just two horrible people dating (at least in this story Lu Ten isn't the greatest person).

Lu Ten wasn't a sailor.

He didn't precisely have what everyone called sea legs. In fact, he would almost say he had sea sickness. There was a reason he was a member of the Fire Nation army and not the navy.

The Earth Kingdom however, was across the water, which meant a boat was needed to get there.

He supposed things could be worse. At least this boat had his secret boyfriend on it.

They had to be careful to not get caught, but it was fairly easy for Zhao to slip from the sailors’ main quarters into Lu Ten's private ones. What had initially looked to be a harrowing weeks long journey by sea had turned into a very drawn out sendoff between lovers.

When the ship landed they would sadly go their own ways. Lu Ten would follow his father to Ba Sing Se, while Zhao would take on an expedition into the depths of the Si Wong Desert.

Both were dangerous missions in themselves, but they were used to it. Still, there was no reason not to make the best of the time they had together.

Lu Ten rolled over in bed, stretching until his ankle popped before snuggling up to Zhao's side.

"Hey," Lu Ten whispered, rubbing his hand up Zhao's chest.

Zhao hummed in reply, as he grabbed Lu Ten's hand to still it.

"We land tomorrow," Lu Ten said, "and I'm not sure if we will see each other when we do."

Zhao looked over at him in question.

"I'm not saying goodbye," Lu Ten said, "as that's bad luck, but please take care of yourself. The desert kills people."

Zhao snorted slightly in humor. "Lu, you've never been to the desert, what would you know about it?" He asked.

Lu Ten popped him playfully on the stomach. "I'm serious," he said. "People have died looking for that library. I want you to come home to me."

"Yeah, but those people weren't me," Zhao said. "I won't die Lu Ten and when I find the library and you and your father take down Ba Sing Se, we'll sail home together, both of us victorious!"

Lu Ten shushed Zhao for the shout, even as he laughed. "Okay," Lu Ten said, smiling over at his lover. "I'll hold you to that."

He leaned down to kiss his boyfriend and sighed happily as Zhao wrapped his arms around him to pull him closer.

He would miss moments like this when they were separated. No place made him feel safer than Zhao’s arms.

At first Zhao wasn't sure what he was being told. 

It had taken him nearly a year of charting the desert to locate what might be the library and months of voyages into the area to finally find it. He had taken note of what was needed and had burned what might be detrimental should someone else find the library.

He had almost died. He had almost broken his promise to Lu Ten.

Which made the news all the worse.

Zhao had been right, General Iroh's troops returned around the same time Zhao and his commanding officers finished their own mission. The only problem was General Iroh didn't return victorious.

Prince Lu Ten didn't return at all.

Zhao lost himself at that. He couldn't sleep in his bunk below deck but everytime he tried to slip towards Lu Ten's room, knowing a night of sleep would find him there, he walked straight past.

Lu Ten wasn't in the room. There was nothing there for him.

He couldn't even talk to anyone about it. No one had known, no one should have known. They had hidden it for a reason knowing it was outlawed and that, even if it wasn't, Lu Ten certainly wouldn't be allowed the dalliance over a wife.

Zhao felt himself go slightly crazy as the world kept spinning on without his boyfriend. It didn't seem right. It didn't seem possible.

Zhao was going home but Lu Ten was dead.

Lu Ten couldn't honestly say where he was. His best guess was the spirit world but he wasn't sure how he had gotten there.

Humans didn't belong in the spirit world, even when they died. Something had gone sideways with his death and now he stood watching from a cliffside as even more people lost in the spirit world wandered in a fog below him.

Lu Ten took one look at the fog, slightly captivated, before turning around. There was no reason to linger. Maybe he could find his way out.

Zhao could taste the salt in the air as bitingly cold winds hit his face.

He smiled to himself as he looked upon the Northern Water Tribe. He had wanted to wait until the equinox, but Lord Ozai demanded he attack as soon as possible.

Still, he could pretend it was an early birthday present for his sweet Lu Ten. Five years the man had been gone and yet it still felt like only yesterday that Zhao had last held him in his arms.

His mission into the Si Wong desert was proving useful and if this siege worked, he may very well be able to avenge his lover. Lu Ten's father certainly refused to do so.

Yes, today Zhao would take the Northern Tribe and the moon spirit in Lu Ten's name. Maybe after, he'd take the world for him.

There was a new human in the fog. He was familiar to Lu Ten in a very intimate way.

With little else to do than explore, Lu Ten often found himself thinking and more often than not his thoughts drifted towards Zhao.

He had broken his promise to the man, having died in Ba Sing Se. Though sometimes Lu Ten wondered if he was actually dead or not. It didn’t so much matter, the results had ultimately been the same.

Regardless he had left his boyfriend behind when they were to return victoriously together. At the time, Lu Ten had been frenzied at the idea of a Fire Nation victory, but after years in the spirit world the notion made him slightly sick.

What made him more sick was watching Zhao wander aimlessly through the fog, however he wasn't able to tear his eyes away.

"Lu Ten?"

He startled from his vigil over Zhao's wanderings and turned to see his father at his side.

"How?" Lu Ten asked, wonder in his voice.

"I meditated at the end of my life," his father replied. "I wished to spend my afterlife here. The bigger question is how are you here and why are you watching the fog of lost souls so closely. I did not find you the first time I looked."

Lu Ten's eyes went wide. His father was dead, likely due to old age. Lu Ten looked back down at the fog, and wondered if he had really been watching it the whole time.

He supposed tine worked differently here. His first five years here had felt like decades compared to the seconds of just now.

"I don't know how I got here," Lu Ten said. "I tried to figure it out but I didn't find anything. As for the fog, someone I know is stuck down there. I was watching him."

“Oh?” his father asked, peering into the fog. It took him a moment before he saw who Lu Ten had been looking at. His father frowned deeply. “I know he was your friend, but it would be best to leave him to his fate. If you save him, you will get lost yourself. He is not worth it.”

“You don’t know what you think you know,” Lu Ten whispered.

His father’s frown deeped. “He is not a good person,” he said.

“Neither was I,” Lu Ten replied, his eyes locked on Zhao as the man muttered to himself and jumped at every sound that reached the fog.

His father stood with him for a while, minutes, days maybe even years in the mortal world though it felt like only seconds before he sighed and left Lu Ten to his vigil.

Zhao should have grabbed the brat’s hand.

His pride had made him take the consequences of his loss and, if he was honest, his reckless behavior had always had a reason. Zhao knew how to temper himself, Lu Ten had made sure of it as he hated Zhao’s reckless behavior when they were younger.

Zhao chose to be reckless because if he died, well, that only brought him back to Lu Ten.

He hadn’t expected where the ocean spirit would drop him.

It was dark and dreary, dripping with secrets and truths Zhao did not wish to discover. A noise to his left caught his attention. Zhao flinched and fell to the ground at the image of his father standing over him.

He crawled away slowly, as he did when he was a child and ran when the image faded. More images appeared to torment him, sometimes familiar faces, other times simply vague ideas. Shadows surrounded him and a sharp piercing noise had Zhao covering his ears.

When the noise faded Zhao looked up and saw an Air Nomad standing in the fog. The Avatar. Zhao growled, and marched forward.

Lu Ten watched above as the Air Nomad, and wasn’t that an odd thing to see, seemed to snap Zhao from the daze of the fog. The Air Nomad left him, but even after Zhao seemed so much more vigilant than he had before.

Zhao shook his head harshly and Lu Ten knew that soon the fog would take over again. If there was ever a time for Lu Ten to act, to pull Zhao from the fog without detriment to himself, it was now.

Lu Ten slid down the cliffside and held his breath. It was a human habit he had never lost, after all why would the dead need to breathe?

He slowly approached Zhao, knowing the man wasn’t expecting him. Zhao hadn’t aged since he came here, but the stress of the fog showed easily in the deep lines on his face from holding an expression of terror for so long.

“No,” Zhao said, more coherent than he’d ever been since being dragged to the spirit world. “You will not use him against me.”

Lu Ten’s heart broke at that. Zhao thought he was another trick. Lu Ten’s vision blurred and an image of the first man he killed flashed in and out of his vision. 

Lu Ten shook his head, knowing he was running out of time. He grabbed Zhao’s wrist, not caring that the man fought him the whole way, and drug him from the fog.

When they reached the edge of the fog, Lu Ten’s vision became so fuzzy he almost couldn’t see. Ghostly images walked in and out of his vision, before a clear one stopped him right at the edge.

Lu Ten knew his father now lived in the spirit world, but this wasn’t him. This was General Iroh, the Dragon of the West. He stared at Lu Ten in disappointment, as if Lu Ten had failed in battle yet again, not having the stomach for war.

Lu Ten shook himself. His father as he was now, wouldn’t care about such things, but it didn’t change the fact that once, not so long ago, he had. The words that came from those lectures stuck with Lu Ten, but this was merely a last desperate trick of the fog.

Lu Ten pushed past his fake father, and took a deep breath when the fog released them.

Zhao was still tugging away from him.

“Zhao,” Lu Ten said. “Stop, we aren’t in the fog anymore. It can’t trick you here. I’m real, well as real as anything in the spirit world.”

Zhao blinked and looked around himself. “Lu Ten?” he asked, holding his hand up to rest on Lu Ten’s cheek.

“Well, it’s not home, and we weren’t victorious, but I came back,” Lu Ten said. “Somehow after everything I think that’s what matters most.”

Zhao said nothing. He pulled Lu Ten into a tight hug, one that had Lu Ten’s heart beating harshly as his old lover cried in his arms.

As if the spirits finally gained what they wanted from whatever trick this was, the two faded slowly away together, into the next life.

Zhijian marched into the town with the other United Forces soldiers. They had been sent to investigate a group of bandits who were attacking the village. It was supposed to be a simple in and out mission but Zhijian hadn’t been counting on Tetsu.

The man had made him breathless when he first met him and Zhijian has suffered ruthless mocking from his fellow soldiers over the embarrassing display he made when trying to gain the man’s attention.

The bandits proved more crafty than expected, but Zhijian found he couldn’t complain much as it meant more time with Tetsu.

“You’ve taken over my heart,” Zhijian said one night as the two laid in bed together.

“Good,” Tetsu said, leaning up to kiss him. “Maybe if you have someone to come home to, you will be less likely to get hurt when dealing with those bandits.”

Zhijian laughed. “I’ve fought worse than bandits before. I will be fine,” he said.

He wasn’t wrong with that statement. He was fine, but in the next raid of the village, Tetsu was impaled on a spear while trying to protect a child.

Zhijian redoubled his efforts to end the bandits, to the point where his fellow soldiers had become concerned. He had been ordered back, as he was clearly not of sound mind for the mission.

Zhijian ignored the order as he crept closer to the bandits. He knew he would be court-martialed when the sun came up, but all that mattered was tonight.

Zhijian didn’t make it to sunrise and the cycle started again.

**Author's Note:**

> Maybe one day their love won't end horribly.


End file.
